Creating a Fantasy Campaign: Fantasy vs Dungeon Fantasy

[LoneWolf23k]

So, just asking for some advice from the GURPS Forums. If I wanted to run a Fantasy Campaign, but not necessarily a "beer and pretzels" game of mostly dungeon crawls, would Dungeon Fantasy still be useful?

Like, I enjoy having the various DF templates, but at the same time, I don't want to use the "niche" tropes of restricting "arcane" spellcasters away from the Healing College.

So, would you recommend me sticking to GURPS Fantasy, or consider Dungeon Fantasy?

[Gigermann]

As someone who is doing this, I would say that DF is still quite "useful", though you will obviously have to screen some stuff out.

[Ulzgoroth]

If you consider the templates useful, it's hard to see how using them would be a problem.

It's possible that you'd want to beef up some of the skill lists though, if you're planning to use parts of the GURPS skill space that DF doesn't take much interest in.

[Taneli]

If your PC's are built like hammers, all of your adventure hooks will be viewed like nails.

Edit: Something to keep in mind while utilising GURPS DF templates in non-DF campaign.

[Varyon]

DF should work fine, although depending on the focus of your campaign, you may want to put aside some points (either by giving a larger budget, or weakening the templates) for the kind of stuff DF doesn't focus on, as others have mentioned. This can also be useful if you want characters to be able to branch out from their templates' niches - indeed, it may be worthwhile to have the players pick one of the [125] templates from Henchmen and give them a nice chunk of additional points to build on top of those. Removing some of the niche-protection mechanisms from "arcane" spellcasters may mean players will likely be a bit more likely to play such spellcasters than the classes who benefited from the niche protection, but as long as you're fine with this going in, I wouldn't expect it to be terribly unbalancing/disruptive.

[Refplace]

I dont run DF style games but still find several books useful for fleshing out fully realized campaign worlds.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf23k

So, would you recommend me sticking to GURPS Fantasy, or consider Dungeon Fantasy?

I don't think this is an either/or choice. GURPS Fantasy tells you about constructing a fantasy world. GURPS Dungeon Fantasy gives you a series of rules for running high-level, D&D-style adventures.

By "rules," I mean of course things like monsters, templates, lists of treasure, and summaries of how to use the rules of GURPS to handle dungeon and wilderness adventuring. You can lift any of these out of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy to be used in more "serious" games. If you happen to like the stuff in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, why wouldn't you use it?

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

I don't think this is an either/or choice. GURPS Fantasy tells you about constructing a fantasy world. GURPS Dungeon Fantasy gives you a series of rules for running high-level, D&D-style adventures.

By "rules," I mean of course things like monsters, templates, lists of treasure, and summaries of how to use the rules of GURPS to handle dungeon and wilderness adventuring. You can lift any of these out of GURPS Dungeon Fantasy to be used in more "serious" games. If you happen to like the stuff in GURPS Dungeon Fantasy, why wouldn't you use it?

This is good advice. As the old adage goes "why reinvent the wheel?" Take, Dungeon Fantasy Treasures 1 for instance. It make you look at "treasure" in a totally different way - beyond simple gold and gems.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by LoneWolf23k

Like, I enjoy having the various DF templates, but at the same time, I don't want to use the "niche" tropes of restricting "arcane" spellcasters away from the Healing College.

So, would you recommend me sticking to GURPS Fantasy, or consider Dungeon Fantasy?

If you like Templates, Banestorm is a better comparison to DF than Fantasy. The Fantasy Templates are very low power. Personaly I have no use for Templates.

I had started my World of D'y'r't campaign which was based on old dungeoncrawling modules about a month before the first DF book came out.

I thought I would at least use the Equipment list but I turned out not to have geardo players. In fact those seem to be relatively rare in the general player populace.

I have selectivey purchased parts of the DF line focussing on magic items and adventures but I haven't yet gotten any significant gaming use out of them and the need to filter out rules that are incompatible with default Gurps has been a nuissance.

[RGTraynor]

I hate dungeons and "dungeon fantasy." Hate hate hate. That crap should've been left in the 70s with Earth Shoes and Trash-80s.

But the GURPS Dungeon Fantasy line has a lot going for it. Treasure Tables, Loadouts, Guilds, the gear sections of the various releases, all very useful. Guilds is my most recent read, and not only does it have a clear and straightforward mechanism for getting aid from organizations, it points out a number that you wouldn't normally think about in terms of "guilds" -- an Extended Family or a Sworn Society, for instance.

In the same fashion that GURPS historical worldbooks have an industry-wide reputation as being highly useful whether or not you play GURPS, the Dungeon Fantasy line is useful even to GURPS players like me who go nowhere near that trope.